I'm not sure, the smell was definitely more than ammonia, but I can see where that's a contender. In the end, does it matter, my hands stank like $#!+ and that's what counted. I'll let you know though, as I'll be doing washed rind cheeses often with my new employer.

Sorry I haven't worked out how to specifically quote a section of a post...

Click on the QUOTE at the top right of whatever post you'd like to quote. You'll see <open bracket>"quote author=" with the author's name, the topic number and the <close bracket>. At the very end of the quoted passage you'll see "/quote" surrounded by brackets, indicating the close point of the passage you just quoted. As long as you don't touch the bracketed open quote or closing quote, you can delete anything in that quote. To check on your work, go to the bottom of your posting and click on Preview.

We should also remember that bathing, in western europe anyway, is a relatively new idea

Well, we are lucky to learn fast By the way, my avatar is a picture of the townhall of Gouda, finished in 1459, a 147 years before Dutch explorers discovered Australia

...and if I remember my high school history correctly they said it was the most miserable place on earth with no potential so they left a plaque made of pewter with their details on it (not sure who they thought would read it?) and promptly left...and the rest is history!

Disgusting thought but I sort of have a vision of "ancient" man - or woman lugging a wheel of cheese to the market under her armpit and the buyer only getting round to eating it some months later and finding it especially delicious....

It all depends on how you look at it... most of the beasties that live in and around us are harmless. And given their co-evolution with us it is no surprise that people find their flavours etc and other effects on food to be pleasurable. What I find disturbing is that if things such as e-coli had been on the whole beneficial to us in some ways then we may today be cultivating faecal type flavours in our food instead of diacetyl etc. Food for thought? I'll stick to diacetyl thanks...

Disgusting thought but I sort of have a vision of "ancient" man - or woman lugging a wheel of cheese to the market under her armpit and the buyer only getting round to eating it some months later and finding it especially delicious....

Don't forget the fine red wine made from the sweaty, yeasty-foot-mashed mash that buyer bought to go along with the cheese.